This review contains full spoilers for The Boys season 4, episode 6, “Dirty Business.”
Only a show like The Boys can bring welcome levity to an episode about sex dungeon foreplay, lobotomies, and brave disabled people. “Dirty Business” avoids feeling unnecessarily complicated or distracting, following a single storyline about secretly infiltrating a far-right cocktail party. After last week’s teary-eyed ending left us feeling low, the series lifts our spirits and even brings us a shocking breakup revelation (which you probably expected if you were watching closely). Freed from the shackles of multiple storylines that were still anchoring it after a weeks-long hiatus, The Boys finally feels like its raucous self again.
A hushed truth is finally revealed: Joe Kessler (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is hallucinating like Becca (Shantel VanSanten). Clues have been scattered throughout previous episodes, but nothing concrete has been forthcoming. Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) doesn’t feature much in “Dirty Business,” appearing only long enough to establish the two imaginary friends. A one-legged Dr. Samir Shah (Omid Abtahi) gets the honor of pointing out Butcher’s delirium, complete with a brief montage of Butcher speaking to an empty room in a past scene where he thought Kessler was. It’s not a groundbreaking twist, but Kessler and Samir’s reactions to Butcher’s crazed state help prolong the impact.
Another scene, which takes up most of the episode, sees them spending the night in Tech Knight’s (Derek Wilson) Bruce Wayne-esque mansion, except the Batcave is a Fifty Shades hideout. The invitation-only extravaganza brings together The Seven’s A-list players and U.S. government officials in one place for all the self-serving corruption we crave. The purpose of the gathering is to conspire and discuss the case against Robert Singer’s (Jim Beaver) presidency, and The Boys have no choice but to send Hughie (Jack Quaid) undercover as The Boys’ Spider-Man equivalent, a drug addict named Webweaver (Dan Mousseau). Quaid plays a tactically awkward and deep character, something he’s already played well throughout The Boys. But when Hughie painfully learns that Webweaver was only invited to be a playboy, he finds himself being held back.
Locking innocent Hughie in a secret room with the horny Tech Knight and Ashley Barrett (Colby Minifie) is comedy gold. It starts simply, with Hughie trying to imitate Webweaver’s drug-addicted speech, but panicking when he realizes Homelander (Antony Starr) is at the party. Tech Knight later takes Hughie downstairs to a pervert lair where Ashley climaxes by tickling “Webweaver” first and then herself. Hughie is embarrassed, even as he laughs his way through this sticky, smelly ordeal, and Quaid plays it with just the right amount of nuanced excited panic, but Colby Minifie is the secret sauce. The way she delivers her dirty lines with force as a sexually dominant alpha displays volcanic confidence, and Ashley smiles devilishly as she degrades her partners with a display of fetishistic ball-shattering power.
When Tech Knight reveals that Hughie has forgotten his Webweaver safeword, The Boys rush to his aid, but they can’t quite get away with it. Annie (Erin Moriarty) confronts Firecracker (Valorie Curry) in a second-floor hallway, neutralizing Vought’s racist, anti-Semitic mouthpiece after a well-deserved apology for being a bona fide monster during her time at the contest. Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso) shoots Sister Sage (Susan Hayward) in the head and then has a panic attack, bowing to pressures she never gave in to with Butcher. Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) and Annie reach Hughie just before Tech Knight penetrates him through a new hole in his body, turning the tables on the lecherous weirdo, but only after the members of The Boys have made some notable character advances. Annie’s confession, MM’s health scare, Hughie’s ability to admit he’s far from okay – all of these are wrapped up succinctly in the main storyline, which is a huge upgrade from previous season 4 episodes that felt like they were being ripped in 50 different directions.
The narrowing of the perspective allows the performances to shine, as seen near the end when Sister Sage and Victoria Newman (Claudia Doumit) steal “Dirty Business.” Sister Sage spends most of the episode playing mind games with Vought’s minions, but there’s a funny moment when an MM bullet transforms her into Sister Sage craving Bloomin’ Onions. She can’t help Homelander gain mass support for his Superman-supremacy plan, and Victoria steals his attention, bringing his monologue to a heroic end. Homelander, a tyrannical superhuman who continues to insist that humans are toys, shrinks to the size of a pea when he fails to smile his way to success. To make matters worse, his manly aura is shattered by Victoria’s actions and Sister Sage’s inability to support him. Homelander crumbles under the pressure like a Nature Valley granola bar, admitting that he’s not capable of being the sole dictator of Vought.
“Dirty Business” revives The Boys’ satirical wit and dark comedy beyond Huey’s psychosexual episode. Victoria hates hanging out with the wrinkled conservative thugs, so much so that she imagines violently poking her head out when she hears anti-Roe v. Wade officials explain inaccurate facts about abortion. When A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) is told Tech Knight’s sordid, bigoted story of how his family inherited a wealthy fortune as slave catchers, he remarks that he would have done just as well as his great-great-grandfather. A-Train’s response is priceless. With self-appointed guardians like Tech Knight speaking the silent parts through a megaphone, “Dirty Business” gives the bad guys a fitting punishment. After being chastised by Annie and Kimiko, Tech Knight protests in agony, but the pair donate hundreds of millions of dollars from his bank account to Black Lives Matter and Elizabeth Warren’s super PAC charity funds. He refuses to acknowledge pain while indulging in the most depraved carnal pleasures, but will he donate his sordid inheritance to a worthy cause? His Maskite intolerance throws a tantrum.
More than anything, Tech Knight’s death leaves The Seven in disarray. The Boys may be in disarray, but their unintended actions are a clever trump card, especially with Frenchie (Tomer Capone) in prison. Homelander realizes that the spy is still alive. The spy is not Ashley’s victim, Cameron Coleman (Matthew Edison). And he’s one step closer to the edge (and on the brink). Then Firecracker appears and sprays Homelander with medically possible breast milk as the ultimate sign of reconciliation. The scene cuts to a cloaked Homelander sucking Firecracker’s nipple and sitting in front of a giant American flag tapestry. This is one of my favorite shots of The Boys, with America’s greatest patriot and a baby boy still nursing on his breast behind the door. This is the show I know and love, and it was missing from Season 4 so far.
